How To Become A Design Engineer/Drafter: What It Is and Career Path

What is a design engineer/drafter and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average design engineer/drafter salary is $51,518. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an drafting and design major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a design engineer/drafter. Design engineers/drafter with a Engineer In Training Certification (EIT) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -6,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDesign Engineer/DrafterUS Average

Salary

4.0

Avg. Salary $51,518

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.3

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.16%

Asian 5.73%

Black or African American 3.03%

Hispanic or Latino 13.06%

Unknown 4.14%

White 73.89%

Gender

female 16.98%

male 83.02%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a design engineer/drafter

Explore design engineer/drafter education requirements

Most common design engineer/drafter degrees

Bachelor's

43.5 %

Associate

42.1 %

Master's

6.4 %

Start to develop specific design engineer/drafter skills

Skills	Percentages
Assembly Drawings	19.35%
Engineering Drawings	8.99%
Engineering Design	7.37%
Auto CAD	5.50%
GD	5.31%

Complete relevant design engineer/drafter training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New design engineers/drafter learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a design engineer/drafter based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real design engineer/drafter resumes.

Research design engineer/drafter duties and responsibilities

Create editable 3D model of the given dumb solid surface using GSD and part modelling in CATIA V5 and SolidWorks.
Prepare HVAC drawings with AutoCAD for field installations.
Create ECR/ECN's for mass assemblies/bill of materials (BOM).
Create and maintain BOM, specifications, assembly procedures and test data.

Prepare your design engineer/drafter resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your design engineer/drafter resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a design engineer/drafter resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable design engineer/drafter resume templates

Build a professional design engineer/drafter resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your design engineer/drafter resume.

Apply for design engineer/drafter jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a design engineer/drafter job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do design engineers/drafter rate their job?

-/5

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Design engineer/drafter reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2023

Pros

It can gurantee you a good salary and if you are creative you can do many things.

Cons

you have to be creative.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019